


TANGLED: And EPIC Adventure

by Windryder1



Category: Epic (2013), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Adventure, Epic, F/M, Friendship, Love, Struggle, Sundrop - Freeform, TINY - Freeform, leafman, moonhaven, stomper, tangled
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:02:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29347836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windryder1/pseuds/Windryder1
Summary: The sundrop is connected to all life. Without it, everything in the forest of Corona will die.Rapunzel, the daughter of a candle maker, is unwittingly pulled into the middle of an epic battle of life vs death. With the help of Quirin, the valiant leader of the Leafmen, Eugene, a young maverick leafman disillusioned with his path in life, and Varian, the intrepid young scientist, she must protect the power of the sundrop from Gothel's dark influence, or the queen of the menacing Boggans will destroy more than just the ecosystem.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Kudos: 4





	1. The Hidden War

**Author's Note:**

> The start will read like EPIC the movie, but with minor changes to accommodate the Tangled universe. Things will change as the story moves along. This is deliberate. Thank you. :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eugene, a young leafman, finds himself in trouble during a boggan fight. Again.

###  **Chapter 1 - The Hidden War**

> _“Someone once told me that a great war waged constantly between the forces of life and decay, and that if you looked closely, you could see it. And if you can’t, then look closer. Because it’s there. And the good guys need all the help they can get.”_

Among the trees, weaving through the branches, breaking through the plates of green leaves, and narrowly slipping between the slimmest twigs, sored the agile small body of a hummingbird.

Multiple black birds crashed through the twigs, squawking their raucous calls as they attempted to surround the smaller bird.

But this wasn’t a flight of joy. This was a flight for survival. 

The jewel-green hummingbird shot straight down, then up in a tight spiral. Its wings made a loud buzzing sound as they beat the air to disorient its attackers. It barreled through the dark-feathered birds with force of a tiny tornado, scattering the enemy.

That would be a move for the record scrolls...if it had worked. 

Three crows advanced on the bird simultaneously, trapping it. 

On the ground, cloud gazing in the middle of a meadow, a girl with waist-length brown hair leaned up on her elbows to watch the battle. She had escaped to the tall grases and flowers to find serenity and daydream away from the home where she only knew servitude. That’s when she noticed the aviary fight at the tree line. She had never witnessed that kind of brutal behavior between hummingbirds and crows before. The small chameleon beside her watched as well.

A crow careened into the hummingbird hard, knocking a tiny being no larger than an insect from its back. 

The small bird chirped in distress and tumbled through the trees toward the ground. 

The girl gasped and hurried over to catch it, and slid through the dirt in her pink dress just in time. It tried to squirm out of her grip. She checked to see if it was injured, and noticed a tiny bit of leather across his back. “What?” she whispered in confusion. It looked like a tiny helmet, a leaf-shaped breast plate, and a...saddle? 

The hummingbird chirped, pecking her in the finger. She yelped in surprise and let it go. Freed, the tiny bird zipped away to safety. 

Curious now, and wondering if she imagined it, she looked up at the group of crows circling as more hummingbirds joined in to attack. The chameleon stared at the display along with her. Whatever was happening up there lay beyond her sight, beyond her knowledge, but not beyond her curiosity. 

Not satisfied with simply taking out the hummingbird, one of the crows circled around driving straight for the outstretched branch of a tall deciduous tree.

He was a Leafman, a protector of the forest, and the Sundrop - the life of the forest. 

But right now, his tiny hide was in serious danger of having his mouse bacon cooked.

He twisted his body away just in time to avoid being impaled by an arrow in the gut. He quickly looked down at the insanely long drop, then back. His brown eyes widened at the macabre force upon the crow’s back bearing down on him with another arrow notched. 

“Oh no. Not good.”

A Boggan, one of the menacing, pallid-skinned creatures infected with decay, had him in its sights.  It pulled back the arrow with its boney fingers attached to limbs long and spindly, emulating the dead twigs of its home.  It’s shark-like teeth glint in the sunlight, and its shriek curdled the blood.

The leafman cried out as another arrow struck the branch, forcing him to let go. 

He fell, screaming to a branch below, landing on its rough surface, and leaped a good portion of the branch’s length to avoid three more arrows striking the bark in rapid succession at his heels. 

He landed in a crouched position on another branch and smirked behind him with a ‘missed me,’ glint in his eye. That is until another arrow zipped too close to his right ear and stabbed the tree. Bulging bubbles of decay spread like a festering wound from the impact point. He stumbled back, leaping away as another arrow hit, then another at his heels. He slingshot himself from a set of twigs over to another branch, on a different tree, dove, rolled, and leaped the wide distance across to a longer, thicker tree extending its old arms out over the meadow.

His tune changed to panic. He needed to find his bird, now. He took off like a shot across the branch.

Three more hummingbirds of red, blue and green flew up beside him as he ran. 

“Need a lift?” an older warrior with years of adventures etched into his face, pulled up close by with a bow in hand and a quiver of elm arrows across his back.

“I got this. I don’t need your help,” he jumped over an arrow that shaved off the top of the bark below his feet, leaving its decay line behind.

“You know, the point of aerial combat is to stay on your bird,” he chastised the young man.

The hummingbird peeped in agreement.

“Thank you,” he huffed in annoyance at both rider and bird. The older man’s tone came across as more fatherly than as a commanding officer. “I’m glad you’re here to tell me these things.” He leaped over a knot in the branch. 

“You’re also running out of branch, there, buddy.”

“I said, I don’t need your he--eeeeeeeelp!” he screamed when a crow plucked him up like a berry from a bush. 

The leafman commander rolled his eyes. Most of the grey hairs on his head came from this kid. “What am I going to do with this kid?” he said. 

Maximus, his faithful hummingbird, peeped. That boy had a hard time following the rules, which grate on his nerves. 

The leafman leader sent the other two green-armored fighters to combat the remaining boggans and sped off after the boy. Again.

The crow’s feet latched around the young man’s arms. He struggled to break free as they soared over the vast expanse of a meadow without care for the girl in it. In fact, she was inconsequential to this battle. The boggan rider leaned over to swipe at him with the bow. 

He avoided getting beaned in the noggin, and was thankful for the emerald colored helmet protecting him. However, he at least needed one free arm. He curled his torso upward and launched his heels into the crow’s leg. It let go of one of his arms. 

The boggan swiped at him again, but screamed and fell from his perch from an arrow protruding from its chest. 

The commander had leaped onto the crow to take out its rider, then back to his own mount. He guided the hummingbird up to meet the dangling young knight. 

“I had this,” the young man struggled. 

“Sure you did. You can’t keep flying solo, Eugene. You’re part of a team.”

“I’m faster on my own.”

The hummingbird’s eyes narrowed slightly and it peeped at the boy. This was not how a true Leafman and a member of the guard behaved. He stuck his tongue out at Eugene.

Eugene kicked out fruitlessly, knowing he couldn’t reach the bird. It was the motion that mattered. That bird had it out for him. Neither liked each other.

“You’re a Leafman. You know how important today is. Get back to Sunhaven. We’ll talk when you’re done here.” With his ruling set, the green armored warrior dove back to regroup with the others. 

“Wait! Aren’t you gonna help me?” 

“I thought I just did,” the commander said, “but you got this, right?”

The young man grumbled at having his own words thrown back into his face. This was just another lesson. “Yeah, I’ll just jump from here. Follow that last guy down.” He kicked the crow’s other leg. It let him go. He cried out as he fell at the edge of the tree line across the meadow, caught a branch, and slid down, snapping a leaf off to surf it to the nearest branch. He landed in a roll and got to his feet, finally able to pause and breathe. 

He looked out across the massive expanse at the other leafmen fighting off the last of the boggan attackers and sighed. Getting back home wouldn’t be easy without a bird. But then, if he had to face his commanding officer, maybe he didn’t want to go back. He turned away and made his way through the tree to find another bird. Whether he liked it or not, his sense of duty won out. This time.

The girl in the meadow watched the aerial flight of fury leave her sight over the trees. The meadow, once more, fell silent to the sounds of nature. She pulled at her dirty dress. “Oh no. Mother’s going to kill me.” 

The chameleon gave a delightful squeak and leaped down to scurry through the grass where the boggan had fallen. Without hesitating, it’s tongue lashed out, coiled around the creature, and it enjoyed the impromptu insectoid snack. 

“Ew,” the girl grimaced in a giggle as the ugly bug-thing disappeared in one quick gulp. She looked up at the sun. “On no! I am so gonna get it!” And with the urgency of the birds above, she put their plight out of her mind and ran barefoot out of the meadow, along a wooded path, to an isolated clearing and an old, two story cottage within. 

If she didn’t clean up before Mother came home, she would have more to worry about than simply explaining away a dirtied and ripped dress.


	2. The Stabbington Threat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rapunzel and her mother, Arianna, get a visit to their small cottage by the dastardly Stabbington twins with an ultimatum that threatens to take everything they have.

###  **Chapter 2 - The Stabbington Threat**

The girl ran up the wooden steps into the house, throwing her satchel of trinkets she’d gathered from the meadow into a stool by the door. She scrambled up to her room to quickly change into a seafoam green tunic and brown cut-off pants, slipped her boots on - to her displeasure (she hated not being able to feel the ground beneath her feet, but her mother insisted she needed to wear shoes), and hurriedly stashed the ruined dress into her armoire. She would get in trouble if her mother found this disaster-dress before she could mend it. 

Her mother had bought this dress last year to be worn for special occasions. But she, in her usual highly-imaginative way, wanted the memory of cloud gazing in the meadow dressed like a fairy tale. 

After all, this was her new home. 

They had packed up their belongings and moved to this cottage out in the middle of nowhere only a month prior. She hated leaving the island town of Corona, and rebelled. This was her father’s childhood home, and had been in his family for three generations. She had found the meadow the week after they moved in. 

She reached for her hair clip, normally on her dresser, but it was missing. She remembered having worn it out a few days ago to the meadow where she’d lost it and groaned. That star flower blue hair clip was her favorite. 

No time now to lament its loss. She tied her hair back with a leather chord and secured it with a matching green strip of cloth. “Come on, Pascal,” she tenderly poked the small chameleon on her shoulder, “Let’s get to work.”

She quickly tied on a cream colored apron with a blue flourish at the corner that she’d painted herself, and began a whirlwind of cleaning. 

Pascal blended in with a flower vase holding powder blue meadow flowers, making her giggle when he trilled a ‘surprise!’ at her. 

She flew around the room sweeping, and with the help of Pascal dusting, the two were able to get through the living room in minutes. They straightened up the vast variety of candles scattered around the house. Many were plain white, some had scents imbued in them, some were embossed with flowers from the meadow, while others swirled with color, and others held paper wrappings and wistful designs painted by the girl. Then came the kitchen. 

However, while she balanced on a stool to reach the ingredients on the top shelf of the pantry, balancing a flour jar in her arms, Pascal had deviated from the plan. 

A fly caught his attention. Suddenly, cleaning became secondary to a delicious treat. 

“No, no, Pascal, don’t!” But she was too late. 

The little lizard’s rambunctious chase after the zig-zagging quick insect had made her lose her balance. And in slow motion, she fell. The jar of flour crashed against the faded light red ceramic tile floor. 

Bits of pot careened everywhere. 

She sat up, covered in white, finely ground flour. 

A thin layer settled over the immediate area. 

She heard the front door open, and her mother calling her name.

Her heart stopped and a lump of dread spiked in her gut. “Oh no. Not good.”

She didn’t have time to move beyond propping herself up before her mother stepped into the disaster zone. 

Pascal turned white to blend in as a lump of flour. 

“Rapunzel!” Arianna gasped. “What happened?”

Rapunzel grinned sheepishly up at her mother. Flour smudged on her face. “I was...making biscuits?”

Arianna folded her arms, glaring down at her daughter. “On the floor?”

“It’s a...new...technique? I call it...Floor Food?” she tried. 

Arianna pinched the V between her eyebrows. “Rapunzel, please. It’s been a rough day. I don’t want to deal with your antics right now.”

Rapunzel frowned. “I’m sorry. It was an accident. I slipped and…”

“I don’t want to hear it. Just get cleaned up. And clean up this mess.”

The despondent girl got to her feet, brushing flour off of her apron. She accepted a towel from her mother. “H-how was it in town today?” she risked changing the subject even though she could sense her mother wanted to be alone. 

Arianna picked up pieces of the shattered earthenware pot. 

She heard a slight sniffle and bent down, placing a hand on her mother’s arm. “Mom?”

Arianna wiped a tear away, leaving a smudge of flour behind under her eye. She placed her hand gently against Rapunzel’s cheek. “Your father would have laughed at the floor food joke. You’re so much like him, sometimes I just…” she looked away. . 

Rapunzel stayed, seeing the pain wash over her mother’s face. Both of them were still suffering through grief. “I miss him, too.”

A small smile creased Arianna’s lips. She knew her daughter felt the same pain, but she had made herself scarce. So many things about Rapunzel reminded her of Frederic, and that memory hurt too much, so she’d been distant to keep from hurting her daughter and herself. ”You’re not getting out of cleaning all this up.” 

“Ok. But mom?” Taking this small moment, Rapunzel pinched a bit of flour in her fingers and flicked it at her mother’s face. 

Arriana flinched, though came back with a mischievous grin, and scooped up a little of her own, returning the attack. 

Before long, the somber moment shifted to mirth as puffs of flour flew back and forth between the two. Rapunzel stood with a pile in her hands. “En guard!”

“You’re not getting away from me, young lady!” Arianna had gathered up her own weaponry and tossed it across the room. 

Pascal covered his head. 

The older woman noticed the blinking eyes of the tiny chameleon and launched an attack at him, too. “You’re not getting out of this either, Pascal.” 

In no time, clouds of flour had layered the kitchen and the three inhabitants in its fine powder, making the mess twice as big. 

This was the first moment of happiness either had felt in a month. 

A brisk knock at the wooden door shattered that moment. 

Arianna brushed as much flour from her dress as she could, grabbed a rag and answered the door. 

She wished she hadn’t. 

Standing side by side, like dual meathead barricades, stood the broad shouldered, imposing forms of the Stabbington twins. 

All merriment sucked out of the house in a vacuum. She wiped her hands off on the rag. “Gentlemen?”

Their sour-faces glared down at the shorter woman, taking notice of her dirtied appearance. Their square jaws looked like someone had uppercut them and their faces stayed that way. 

“I hope we’re not interrupting anything,” the one on the right, Sideburns - as he was known by the locals - said in false conviviality.

“Oh, no,” she forced a civil smile, “Just baking. It’s a... new technique.”

The humor breezed right by the brothers. 

“Good,” the other brother, Patchy, said, “because we’re here to inspect our property.”

Arianna’s smile vanished. “It’s not your property and never will be.”

Sideburns leaned forward, pointing at her. “Your husband owes us for a shipping job he never paid for. We’re taking it out of your land.”

“I already told you, you’ll get your money.”

“From your candle business?” Sideburns scoffed, “You expect us to believe the pathetic sales you make at Uncle Monty’s will be enough to cover our payment?” He stabbed a thick finger into the palm of his hand. “The delivery from Arendelle took us a week to retrieve and return. Scented candles won’t be enough to cover the cost.”

Patchy stepped forward, stopping at the threshold and casting his menacing shadow across the brave woman who refused to move. He stared down into her green eyes. “We could take the cost out of you,” he sneered. 

She gasped. 

“But as you called us gentlemen,” he threw up the word, “we’ll act...gentlemanly-like.”

“This cottage and your land will be ours if we don’t get our compensation by the end of the week. That gives you,” he counted on his beefy fingers, “three days.”

She planted her hand on her hip and stared down the beasts at her door. “I could have the captain of the guard throw you in jail for trespassing. You have no right to come to my home and threaten me.”

Sideburns shuffled around through the satchel across his shoulder and withdrew a slip of parchment, “Oh, Mrs. Der Sonne, I think we do.”

Her eyes scanned over the damning words on the legal document drawn up by Larry D. Leech, one of the most disreputable lawyers in Corona. He may cheat and lie, but so far, his silver tongue had managed to avoid landing him behind bars. 

Of course, these bumbling idiots couldn’t handle anything that required this level of intelligence. They shared one brain cell between them, and she was convinced it didn’t fire half the time.

A heavy weight fell on her shoulders. 

“It’s a warrant,” Patchy explained. “If you’re not out in three days, we’ll have you forcibly removed.”

“I can read, thank you,” she snipped back. She was surprised he knew the word ‘forcibly.’ Multisyllabic words weren’t their strong suit. 

“Frederic entrusted us to make the supply delivery in his stead, since he was unfortunately too ill to make the trip himself,” Sideburns said, “He knew without that deal, that his one little boat would have sunk along with his tiny shipping business. He signed a contract.” 

“It’s a shame he croaked before he could pay us our cut,” Patchy added.

A fire lit in Arianna’s eyes. “Don’t you _dare_ speak of my husband that way.”

“Honoring the contract falls to you, his widow,” Sideburns said. Neither brother cared about the lack of reverence. They saw an opportunity to gain land, and they snatched it. “Either pay us, or this house and its land will belong to us.”

“Three days. In that case,” she took a deep breath, and steeled her resolve,”if I see either of you on my property within the next three days, I will have you thrown in jail for violating your own warrant.” She picked up a silver candlestick. “I suggest you leave. Now.”

The two backed up snarling at her, and walked away. 

“Three days, Candle Maker!” Sideburns called back. “Three days!”

Arianna closed the door and leaned against it, her courage deflating like a balloon. Some of those funds made from that last delivery job had gone to Frederic’s final expenses and paying off debts. The Stabbington brothers were the only debt left, but by that point, she had run out of money. She only had her candle business to rely on. 

She was very capable of paying them in installments, but the Stabbingtons were impatient, ruthless, and lacking any sort of logic or empathy. She knew they were using her dire situation to benefit themselves, and it sickened her. They would rather see her and her daughter homeless than agree to a deal. 

Rapunzel had watched the entire hair-raising situation unfold from the threshold of the kitchen. With cautious steps, she moved forward. The air still buzzed from the discord the twins left behind. “We’ll figure something out, mom. We always do.”

Arianna looked up at her daughter. Rapunzel could always see the light in any situation. She wanted to agree, to reassure her that they would be alright, but she couldn’t bring herself to lie. Three days was just too little time to come up with that much money. 

She stood and clenched her trembling hands so Rapunzel wouldn’t see her fear. 

It failed. The teenager wrapped her arms around her mother tightly. 

Arianna held her only child, thankful for the comfort, but knowing she had to be strong for both of them. “Go clean up the kitchen, love,” she softly ordered. “I’ll...I’ll go get firewood. There’s supposed to be a storm tonight.” And without another word, she left Rapunzel alone in the house. 

Pascal jumped down to the surface of a small table harboring a collection of pillar candles and squeaked forlornly up at his human. 

Rapunzel bit her lip. “What are we going to do, Pascal? Those giant ogres will stop at nothing to take our home.” They had had it out for her father ever since his business began seeing more popularity than theirs. Hiring them was a mistake, but her father had been desperate. He had passed away before they’d returned. 

The little chameleon turned blue. He didn’t have an answer for her. 

She drew a finger gently down his back, and walked into the kitchen to clean. In this hopeless predicament, it was all she could do.


	3. Sunhaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Queen Tara reveals the importance of today, the Summer Solstice.

###  **Chapter 3 - Sunhaven**

Tucked away deep in the woods, far from the prying eyes of the human world, rested a secluded, secret glade called Sunhaven. 

Sunlight danced across the crystal clear surface of a large central pool like diamond fractals. Its current flowed gently over the water-worn grey sides of rocky cliffs to dip in a veil of white mist to the bubbling stream below. Great, thick stalks of plants speared toward the sky around its perimeter among stones draped in blankets of soft, emerald-green moss, and between flora of all colors. Their wide leaves sheltered the idyllic sanctuary and protected the denizens of Sunhaven.

Rarely could anywhere be more deserving of the title of ‘paradise.’

The Leafmen, and the Jinn of the forest - the sentient plant-like and animal-like beings - called it home. 

They healed the woods, helped things grow, kept nature in balance, and thrived among the verdant energy teeming from every twig and leaf. 

The people of Sunhaven were all connected to the life of the forest. 

And the life of the forest lived within their beloved, benevolent leader, Queen Tara. 

Quirin, valiant commander of the Leafmen, landed his hummingbird with practiced ease on the rock outcropping within the majestic and beautiful spire of Sunhaven’s tower at the pond’s northern apex. 

Multiple members of the Leafman regiment were gathered with their birds, making sure the armor and saddles were secure. They were preparing an escort. But from the frequent, unusual attacks by the boggans, they were also preparing for a confrontation. 

Small bell flowers chimed softly in the breeze, adding their delicate music to the serene atmosphere. 

He removed his helmet, revealing his brown close-cut hair. As he walked through the hall of the palace he had known since he was a boy training to be a leafman, its beauty still reached him, even now after years of service. He loved Sunhaven. 

But his heart belonged more to the beautiful source of life currently tending to a small flower bud. Her long golden dress flowed around her, and her aura shone with a soft brilliance. Either the sunlight through the flowers lit up the chamber, or it was the manifestation of the sundrop’s light radiating from her. Whenever he saw her, a pleasant warmth filled him. And it reaffirmed his conviction to protect her.

Queen Tara brushed her fingers along the petals of the flower. “You’re not getting enough sunlight,” her mellifluous mezzo voice slipped through the air. 

Quirin knelt, bowing his head in respect. “Your Majesty, the boggans have crossed our borders again--”

She knew he was there, but chose to be a little defiant and not look him in the eye yet and spoke to the bud. “It’s Quirin. I know. I’ve told him he doesn’t have to kneel, but he keeps doing it anyway.”

“Your Majesty,” he continued, “their attacks are more frequent. They know what today is, and they will try anything to keep you from choosing an heir.”

“When we were kids, he wasn’t so serious,” she told the flower, flicking her eyes up to the leader of the leafmen above a smirk. She straightened to face him, letting the bud’s head drift toward her as if enraptured by her presence. She tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear. The rest of it was plaited and pulled up at the back, “and he had the most charming smile.”

“Look,” Quirin stood and approached her with his helmet tucked under his arm. “I have an idea. Instead of a public ceremony, I take a small platoon, we head out to the pond, grab a pod, bring it back to you. You transfer the sundrop’s power to it, it blooms, the life of the forest continues. In and out.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” she giggled, “I have to be there,” she swept her arm gracefully over her head to urge the pink flowers above her to create an opening. “It’s about the feeling. The sundrop’s power guides me to the right pod. I get it from everything, from the forest, and all of us.”

A ray of sunlight fell on the small flower bud. Its petals opened up to accept its warmth. 

“That’s better,” she cood to the flower. 

She let it be for now. “Don’t you have feelings, Quirin?” her flirtatious side-eye held years of intimate history between them. 

“Yes. And I feel this is a bad idea. It’s too dangerous for you to go out there. The boggans have never been this aggressive--” a vine coiled up around him, lifting him slightly off the floor and pinning his arms to his sides. 

“I’m not exactly helpless, you know,” she said with a side smile. 

“I am aware,” he said in a manner that suggested this wasn’t the first time she had shown her ability to defend herself. His tone turned softer, “You’re the sundrop. You are the life of the forest. If anything were to happen to you, I…” he stopped himself.

She drifted closer. “Yes?”

“It is my duty to protect you.”

“Only your duty?” she closed the gap between them. “Is that all?”

“Isn’t that enough?” his voice hushed. 

Queen Tara edged in as the vine curled up to caress his ear, “If that’s the... only... reason you do it.”

He didn’t break eye contact with her, and he was glad these vines kept his arms at his sides. The urge to hold her grew. “Um...your majesty?”

She drifted near enough to touch the vines, “Yes?” she saw the answer he wanted to give shine in his eyes, saw the man who held her heart, and wanted him to speak his mind. 

He hesitated. She was gorgeous, kind, a bit of a rebel, and he always loved that about her. He also knew she was playing coy, so in his own teasing reply, said, “I’m... not ticklish.”

The vine curled back. “Awe,” she tisked, “you used to be.” She freed him from the binds and became more formal. As much as she loved him. her heart belonged first and foremost to her people and to the forest. Even at the expense of her own happiness. Flirting was all they were allowed. “Very well. I understand your concern.” she moved gracefully away, “but I need to do this myself. This is the only summer solstice in a hundred years I can choose an heir. I can’t shortcut my way through this, Quirin. If the life of the forest is to continue, this is what must be done. Or there won’t be a future to protect.”

He accepted her ruling, though he wasn’t happy about it. 


	4. Wrathwood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gothel, Queen of the boggans, will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

###  **Chapter 4 - Wrathwood**

Wrathwood.

A place of unimaginable nightmares. 

Where beings of darkness thrive within its tenebrous groves of rot, and where the sun's warmth can find no purchase.

The children of Sunhaven were told stories of the realm of death and decay. That what was once a verdant land had become twisted and overgrown with leafless trees, and brown, brittle stalks of flowers bent and defeated, their heads dipping to the ground. 

Chilling, empty breezes breathed through the desiccated shells of trees that once held vibrant life. Their branches, gnarled and mangled, reached outward, ready to snare any unsuspecting creature into their skeletal fingers. 

This land existed as the polar opposite of Sunhaven.

All Jinn avoided crossing the line between their borders. Even the leafmen, the bravest of the forest denizens, rarely ventured into the dark woods. 

While the people of Sunhaven called the forest their home, the boggans dwelt in the shadows of Wrathwood.

A landscape of lichen covered rocks tumbled through the decayed woods toward the husk of a broad oak tree at the center of a murky bog. It once stood tall and proud for hundreds of years - a king among the trees - until the boggans devoured it, crumbled its bark, and hollowed out its heart down to the roots. 

And there the fallen Majesty reigned as lord over a forest of its own kind in the dark kingdom. 

The stench of the dead and the dying curled its rancid petrichor into the air. 

It was perfume to the queen of the boggans. 

She extended her long-fingered hand to lift a hairbrush made of the bones and teeth of a shew, and drew its fangs through her thick curly locks. Her careful strokes around a sickly, dark-lipped smile exuded high levels of vanity. She, in her macabre castle, luxuriated in the rot-stained walls of her chamber. Bubbles of deformity decorated her walls. Below the wide balcony that used to be the crook of a branch swarmed thousands of boggans at her command ready to die for her, willing or not.

She admired her visage in a mirror clutched by the hands of a mouse. Its former owner didn’t need them anymore. 

The tall, hulking form of Mandrake, the high commander, strode through the wooden caverns of the tree, inciting a fight between two guards stationed at the entrance to the queen’s private rooms for fun. There was no door to her main chamber, only an open archway. She feared no boggan among her ranks, and left it open as a mocking invite to the leafmen to try.

He stopped at the final step up to her level. “Queen Gothel.”

“Ah, Mandrake,” Gothel’s voice was as slick as spider silk with the spider still attached, “You’re back early. I assume the mission went well?”

“Very well,” he flashed a sharp-toothed grin beneath jaundice-yellow eyes, “We lost a number of men in a skirmish with the leafmen, but--”

She rolled her eyes, “Get to the good part. Did you find the location of their ceremony?”

“Yes. It’s far outside of our borders--”

“You mean _their_ borders,” she snapped. “I’m tired of being relegated to rule this small - albeit beautiful - island of rot. And all in the name of balance,” she snarled the word.

“You deserve more, my queen,” 

“Yes, you’re right,” she placed the bone brush with care onto her vanity and pulled up the sides of her cheeks to admire her smooth complexion - a perfect, healthy grey. 

She replaced a diadem of slim, coiled metal spiking upward with black crystals on her head. A central dark red gem set within a downward facing equilateral metal triangle rested over the widow's peak of her hairline. This gem was one of a kind, a rare ruby, and because of that, she had to posses it to accent her natural beauty.

He stepped inside the chamber. The pelt of a black rat draped over his head down to his heels. Its teeth framed his squarish face, and its naked tail dragged along behind him.

“Don’t shuffle, Mandrake. You know how I hate the shuffling,” she frowned at his reflection behind her. He was ruining her view. 

“Forgive me.”

Gothel stood, moving toward the balcony. The red feathers of a leafman’s fallen hummingbird adorned the vole skin half skirt clasped around her slim leggings and corset. Along with this blood-red decoration, she had taken a trinket belonging to that leafman - a small ring clasp with three rays of light through the center - during their last push to keep her from expanding her territory. The leather of her batwing cap fluttered in her wake. The clasp held it securely at her neck, and it accented her perfect collarbones beautifully. 

She rested her hands against the twisted balcony railing and stared out over her kingdom. “Today, we will teach Queen Tara a lesson. We cannot be stopped.” 

Gothel’s boots clicked along the ringed surface toward a staff displayed prominently on a stand. She took it in hand and gestured toward Mandrake in an easy manner. 

He stepped backward automatically for his own life. That staff held her power - the power of corruption, of decay, and death. Whatever it touched succumbed to its infection. 

“The leafmen think they can keep us contained by their… disgusting greenery. They and their queen thwart my every effort to extend our borders. Their arrogance makes me sick.”

“Then the queen must be stopped. Let me take my men to cut her down.”

“I’ve always loved your...imbecilic yet charming enthusiasm,” she said with a passive aggressive smile. “Let me break it down into smaller words; If the queen dies without an heir, the power of the sundrop dies with her. The leafmen cannot regrow anything.” 

“But,” he questioned, “that’s what we want.”

“Yes, but you’re missing the bigger picture, my dear. Sometimes, you’re as bright as a dead firefly,” she then chuckled, “I’m only joking, Mandrake. Don’t look so serious,” she then spun on her commander. “I must have that power! Queen Tara never took advantage of its full potential. But I will. Nothing will stand in our way, and the balance will tip in our favor forever.” 

“And if she refuses to give you that power?”

“She won’t,” she said in full confidence, “She won’t have a choice,” Gothel tipped the knotted bulb at the top of the staff to the ground where a small green leaf had found its way into the den of decay. “Either she dies and lets the life of the forest fade, or she surrenders the sundrop to me. Either way, we win. Our time to rule a kingdom of rot is at hand.”

The leaf shriveled and died at its touch. She pulled three quills from where it once clung and handed them to Mandrake. “See to it that the queen never chooses a pod.”

He took them in earnest to fulfill his duty to his monarch. “With pleasure.”

A poisoned grin creased her face. 

“And what of your promise?”

“Ah, yes,” she waved her hand blithely, “You may have Wrathwood.” she faced her kingdom once more, looking to the hazy horizon and the greenery beyond. Everything would soon be under the inescapable umbra of her ubiquitous influence. The thought of it filled her with excitement, “But the forest of Corona and all within...will be mine.”

Reveling in her own flawless plan, Gothel allowed herself a moment of pure self indulgence and let the song of her sadistic laughter ring across the hordes of boggans preparing for battle.


	5. Eugene's Decision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eugene and Quirin have a falling out.

“Incoming!” 

Eugene pulled back hard on the reins attached to the harness around the old sparrow’s beak. 

The little bird who had been looking for bugs across the meadow happened to spot the tiny leafman and had confused him for an insect treat. The bug-leafman had managed to convince the bird he wasn’t food, and the next thing the sparrow knew, it was careening through the trees on the other side of the meadow with the leafman on its back. This was a weird day. In the course of a few minutes, it went from minding its own business to being a mount.

The bird pumped its brown wings frantically to slow down by the harsh command of its new rider, causing it to buck and weave from side to side. 

“Whoa, easy! Ah! Up! Up! Pull up!” He yanked back again to keep it from crashing into the arm of a birch branch.

The sparrow squawked in for a perfect two point landing on the rock outcrop of Sunhaven with the grace of an inebriated albatross. A few feathers loosed into the air. 

One of its better landings, it would say. 

Eugene launched from his place at the base of its neck at the impact, hit the ground and stumbled, but didn’t fall. 

A few distant chuckles drifted his way from his fellow leafmen lined up to escort the queen’s parade to the choosing grounds.

He straightened as if the botched landing hadn’t happened at all. 

“Nice bird, Eugene,” one of the girls from his group mocked. “Taking Grandma out on a day trip from the retirement tree?”

“Jealous?”

“Of course. Who wouldn’t want to crash into a branch every five seconds?”

He knew Cass was trying to goad him, and he wouldn’t give her the pleasure, “She flies like a dream,” the bird coughed and chirped, “Usually. It's kind of an off day for her.”

“More like an off year.” 

He faked a shiver. “Whoa, do you feel that? It just got colder. Must be an early frost patch around here,” he glanced around, then gestured to the rock beneath her knee-high boots, “Yup, there it is. Found it. You’ve been on winter duty too many times. The ice is clinging to you.”

Her dark eyebrows knit together beneath her helmet. The green pointed beak design resembling a hummingbird accentuated the irritated expression. “One of these days, you’re going to fail, Eugene, and I just hope I’m there to see it.”

Cassandra’s skill with an arrow was practically unmatched next to Quirin’s, and her wit was just as sharp. Eugene had been her favorite practice target for the latter ever since they were small children running through the glade of Sunhaven. 

“You’re late,” Quirin scowled.

“You told me to come back, so I came back. On this ,” he gestured back to the old sparrow. 

It shook out its wings, coughed, and settled down. 

It wasn’t easy to control a wild bird - especially an older one. They had minds of their own by that age, and could be troublesome to command if they hadn’t been raised by hand. He waited for validation at having done something incredibly difficult. Not every leafman could tame a wild bird. 

“And you want credit for that?”

Eugene looked from the bird adorned with a saddle and stirrups that had taken Eugene a lot of effort to coax it into wearing, then back. Did Quirin not see this, or just not care? Then again, why would he be surprised. The commander hardly noticed anything Eugene did to prove he could be a great warrior. Over time, the lack of recognition began to wear on him, so he had stopped trying. Training this wild sparrow was his reignited attempt to give it one more shot. 

And it went right by the battle-hardened commander. 

“Go get a real bird and get back to your group,” Quirin ordered. He turned to go. 

That was it. If Quirin didn’t care, then why should he? This proved to him that things would never change. “No.”

Quirin stopped, “What did you say?”

“I said, No.” 

“What’s gotten into you lately? You’ve been reckless, disobeying orders, abandoning your group… And that was the second bird you’ve lost since spring. You’re lucky they’re trained to return home. If you don’t stop this behavior, you or someone else is going to get hurt.”

“Why do you keep treating me like a kid? You don’t yell at them like you yell at me,” he gestured toward the other leafmen. His voice began to raise, but he didn’t care. He was at the end of his rope. “I thought you’d be happy I put myself out there.”

“You take unnecessary risks. I’m trying to look out for you.”

“Yeah, well, I never asked you to do that.”

Quirin paused and his voice shifted to a somber tone, “Your father did.”

That put a stopper in Eugene’s rant like a log dam across the stream. Quirin had been part of his life since his birth because his father hadn’t only been second in command, he and Quirin had shared a friendship that went back to the days of being a sprout - a child below the age of twelve. 

His eyes drifted briefly to the clasp at the right breast side of Quirin’s white and gold embroidered vest that signified his status as leader of the leafmen; a circle with three points of sunlight spearing from the outer edge into its center. 

Quirin and his father each had one. Whatever meaning it held remained between them. 

Quirin might think invoking his father’s memory would temper Eugene’s resolve, but to him, it revived that pain that lived as a constant dull ache that had yet to heal in six years. 

He pursed his lips and doubled down on his stance. “Well, you can stop.” He spread his arms to the side in a galant gesture as he walked back to the sparrow, “I hereby absolve you of all responsibilities in the raising of young Eugene.”

“Don’t walk away from me. I’m your commanding officer. That’s an order,” Quirin barked at the eighteen year old. 

Eugene stopped, though it wasn’t to obey. “You know what? I’m done. I quit.”

Quirin’s jaw slacked in disbelief with a little spice of pain that quickly flipped to a spike of anger. “You can’t quit.”

Eugene easily mounted the saddle on the sparrow. “I thought I just did.” He kicked his heels into the bird’s side with a ‘h’yah!’ and took off into the sky. 

The sparrow ducked and pitched, forcing Eugene to reel in more control. “Whoa, let it go, easy, easy easy! To the left! Your other left! Still the wrong left!”

Out of all the days for Edmund’s son to pick to activate his full-on rebellious streak, it had to be today. Quirin’s jaw tightened. If this was what the kid wanted, then he would let him go. He didn’t know if that stubbornness had come from Edmund or Epheia, his mother, but both had been admirable warriors known for their headstrong bravery and uncanny ability to get in and out of trouble. 

And Eugene got a double dose of all of it. 

If either of the boy’s parents were still alive, he would ask them to have a talk with their son. But Eugene was orphaned in his last year of being a sprout. Quirin and the leafmen were all he had left. 

He had heard once that it takes a village to raise a child, and in the case of Eugene, it couldn’t be more fitting. 

Even though his parents were gone, Eugene would never be abandoned. That just wasn’t the way the leafmen lived. 

His gaze slid back to Stan and Pete, who had approached to inform their commander that the warriors were ready. He arched his eyebrow at the eavesdroppers. “What are you looking at?”

That move alone told them they should zip it. Pete, tall and lanky like a twig, and Stan, the new second in command, broad and strong like an oak - an oak with a bushy brown mustache - instantly stood at attention. 

The two were rarely seen without the other.

And they had both watched Eugene grow up among the other children training to become guardians of the forest.

“Uh, nothing,” Pete flicked his eyes quickly to the waiting squads of leafmen, then back, “I have no opinion on this. Stan?” he elbowed his friend.

“Oh, uh, I don’t have opinions on anything,” he sharply swiveled on his heel to address the others. “Alright, everyone! Mount up!” 

Quirin exhaled a heavy breath. He would deal with Eugene’s outburst later. For now, his full focus needed to be on protecting Queen Tara through her sojourn to and from the choosing grounds. 

The parade began to a fanfare of horns proclaiming the Queen’s appearance. A group of hummingbird-mounted leafmen took up a V formation ahead of the royal barge and raised their banners high. Each one made of a leaf bore the hollow round sun insignia painted onto its surface - the symbol of Sunhaven and the forest of Corona.

Quirin took up point on his jewel-green hummingbird to the queen’s left while an honor guard dressed in white - the winter armor - accompanied her inside the leaf barge. Dragonflies carried it gracefully over the water at a slow enough pace to allow the beautiful queen time to smile and wave at her people. 

Queen Tara stood atop a closed flower bud pedestal so that all beyond had a clear view of her, and she of them. The sunlight enhanced her aura’s glow. Her golden dress shone with an ethereal light that inspired awe and gasps from the crowd. 

They cheered and called her name, excited for the chance to send adulations to their queen. 

“This is a parade, Quirin,” she prodded him jovially, “Try to smile even a little? For me?”

He looked down from his vantage point at her face, perfectly framed by her dark hair as she gave him an impish smile, then laughed. 

Though his shoulders weighed heavy from the worry of a possible boggan attack, the sound of her laughter was enough to let him try. The sun could rise and set forever, and it still wouldn’t be enough time to exist in its song. And so, a small smile snuck past his stoic resolve.

They would have their chance to smile together when this was all over. 

But first, he needed to ensure her safety until the very end to get to that point.

The dragonflies carried the royal barge along the length of the stream lined by jinn and people. Some stayed to watch it pass and enjoy the warmth the sundrop left behind in their hearts while others hurried along the stream line to keep up with the barge. They wanted to see which pod she would choose to pass along the sundrop to.

This was a once in a century chance. The selection of a new queen would be recorded on a golden scroll as a momentous day in history. 


	6. A Dastardly Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rapunzel overhears the Stabbington's plan, while deep in the forest, Queen Tara reaches Illum Grove - the choosing place to find a pod.

###  **Chapter 6 - A Dastardly Plan**

****

Were this any other warm summer day, Rapunzel would have found the birds’ songs and the softly swaying wildflowers and grasses of the small meadow enjoyable. She might have even come here with lunch and a quilt to have an impromptu picnic with Pascal if it weren’t for the impending doom of their lives changing forever on the horizon.

She thought of the first time she found it while exploring.

Her mother liked this meadow - well, it was more like a large clearing than a meadow. She had brought Ariana here to show her how beautiful it was, and how quiet it was compared to the town of Corona - which was constant noise with the din of people, carts, and horses hooves clopping along the cobbled streets. The song of the town had been with her for her entire life, and she didn’t know how to live without it. 

Out here, among nothing but the forest, sometimes at night, the silence was just too loud.

Yet even as quiet as it was, Arianna had said it hummed with activity. There was a constant battle between the forces of life and decay, and that if Rapunzel looked closely, she could see it. And if she couldn’t, to look closer, and to listen.

Rapunzel had closed her eyes as her mother instructed, and listened. 

Birds chirped in a lively chorus of varying pitches and warbles. Insects buzzed by her ears, and crickets chirped. She could hear the wind rustling through the leaves of the trees surrounding the meadow in gentle susurrations. In the far distance of her hearing, she could just barely make out the babbling water of a nearby stream. 

When she had opened her eyes, she had found her mother face up to the sky smiling, her emerald green eyes closed. A soft sigh had left her, as though she had remembered something precious to her long gone. 

‘I haven’t been out here since you were a toddler.’ 

‘Wait, you’ve been here before? I’ve been here before?’ Rapunzel blinked. She had thought she had discovered a secluded sanctuary no one else in Corona knew of. 

‘Of course,’ Arianna smiled at her daughter and brushed her hand down her long chestnut-brown locks, ‘You were born in that cottage. Your first picnics were here. I remember you almost fell into the stream once when you were four,” she brushed her hair away from her face, “It seems so long ago. Your father and I met in this meadow. He intimidated me at first, but I soon discovered he had the kindest, most gentle heart. Frederic was charming, handsome, patient, and had an odd fascination with eggs,’ she chuckled at the memory, then turned a wistful, nostalgic gaze to the whole of the natural beauty around them. ‘Coming here feels like coming home,‘ her smile held a hint of longing, ‘I didn’t realize until now how much I missed it.’

_Coming home…_

Rapunzel sat cross legged and barefoot on top of the mossy boulder with Pascal on her knee and tried to summon that feeling of ‘home.’ She had begun to feel it almost immediately whenever she came here. It was odd how quickly she had become accustomed to this place over the past month. 

And now because of the Stabbingtons, they would lose it forever. 

She slid down to sit on the soft grass up against the boulder and looked up at the white puffs of clouds lazily drifting by. The wind brushed strands of loosed hair from her ponytail across her forehead. A storm was predicted to hit early in the evening. She loved the summer storms, and how she could cozy up in a blanket in the window seat of the living room with a cup of tea surrounded by candles they had made and watch the storms roll by. 

It had only been a month, but she didn’t want to lose that. 

“What are we going to do, Pascal?” she said forlornly to the small lizard, “We can’t just roll over and let those lunkheads take our home,” she pondered for a moment, then sat up, “I got it!”

Pascal squeaked out a question. 

“I could get a job as a cobbler’s apprentice, or as a baker at Atilla the Bun’s.”

Pascal shook his head ‘no’ to both. He knew her skills, and neither of those were in her wheelhouse.

“I know I burn almost every pie I make, but maybe I just need a little more time to get it right,” she snapped her fingers, “Oh! What if I joined the Corona royal guard?”

He stared at her as though she’d lost her mind. 

She huffed a breath, “Yeah, you’re right. Those outfits look stuffy. Besides, with all those rules, I’d hate it. Hm… what about a blacksmith? I might not be able to bake, but I’m good with a frying pan. And I can make candle holders!”

He nodded, smiling. 

“That’s it, then.” Rapunzel smacked her fist into her open palm, “I’ll tell mom I need some new paint for the candles, head into town, and ask Xavier for a job.” Even though she had no experience whatsoever in metal working, this was her plan. How hard could it be?

She began to get to her feet when the heavy crunching of boots too big to be her mother’s caught her attention. 

Rapunzel snuck a peek over the boulder and gasped. 

The Stabbington twins were walking, stomping unceremoniously into her clearing.

She ducked back down to hide behind the boulder, hoping they hadn’t seen her, and wouldn’t get the urge to venture anywhere near. 

Pascal climbed to the top and lay flat to get a look. Yup, it was those two lunkheads alright. 

Rapunzel risked poking her head up enough to watch. “The Stabbingtons? What are they doing here?” Her mother had ordered them to leave, and yet they had lingered on their land. A few acres of this forest belonged to the Der Sonnes, including this meadow.

Sideburns and Patchy stood out like dark tar stains in the lime-green landscape. Sideburns (the meatwall on the left) squared his fingers up to his eyes to measure up the field while Patchy picked his nose, examined what he’d mined out of his nostrils, and flicked it aside. 

“Uch,” she scrunched up her nose. These two were disgusting.

Sideburns lowered his hands and pointed to the west in the direction of Corona, “We’ll put the hideout over there, clear out this field, and cut down these trees for pasture. No one will find us way out here.”

“Using this place as a farm to front our operation is a genius move. I didn’t think you were capable of coming up with a plan like that,” Patchy punched his brother in the shoulder, “Uncle would be proud.”

Sideburns hit him back, “Yeah. I can’t wait to see the look on the old Baron’s face when _we_ show up with the deed to the Der Sonne’s property instead of him.”

“He’s hated that family all his life. For us to be the ones to own it will really put sawdust in his bread,” Patchy chuckled. “We’ll charge _him_ to use _our_ land for a change.”

Sideburns scuffed up a clod of dirt beneath his worn leather boot and kicked it up to catch it. He ground the dirt around in his fingers - a metaphor for his plans. “We can build our own storehouse and keep everything we gain from the other six kingdoms in secret. It’s the perfect sideline from the pass to get around customs.”

He turned around to look back into the forest toward the house. “I say we put it where that manky old cottage is. It’s termites holding hands. We get the goods in, we get the goods out, and no one is the wiser,” he let the dirt sift through his fingers to the ground. 

Rapunzel gasped, and quickly covered her mouth. 

They were going to destroy her father’s cottage and the land to build a fake farm to cover a smuggling operation.

A poker-hot anger rose in her chest and spread outward through her limbs. Her small hands balled into fists. 

Pascal gripped the three quarter sleeve of her tunic to stop her from doing something stupid, but he was too small, and merely got pulled along. 

“Hey!” Rapunzel stepped out from her hiding place, catching the attention of the two brutes. Pascal climbed up onto her shoulder. To her small stature, they were the intimidating height of a single story building and just as thick as a brick wall - with the intelligence to match. 

The twins turned to look down at this small girl. They hadn’t expected anyone to be out here. And as she marched up to them, they folded their arms with smirks of annoyance. 

“Look, Sideburns,” Patchy said, “The Der Sonne brat came to give us a tour of our new home.”

“I thought my mother told you to leave.”

“This is your meadow?” Sideburns badly faked ignorance to let this girl know he didn’t care.

“Yes,” Rapunzel stopped, “And you’d better get out of it immediately, or I’ll--”

“Or you’ll what?” Patchy sneered down at her. 

She faced down the twin walls as fear began to override her bravery. Yet she held her ground. “I know what you guys are planning. I heard everything. And as soon as my mother finds out, that warrant is as good as snuffed. And the captain of the guard will lock you up,” she glared with Pascal adding in his sharpness, “for.e.ver.”

“Oh no!” Patchy feigned distress, “Not the Captain of the Guard!” He faked trembling in fear, then burst into laughter. “He couldn’t catch a fly if it died in his hand.”

Sideburns advanced slowly on her like a prowling bear.

She stepped back. 

“You made the number one rookie mistake, girl. You just removed your leverage. But you’ve given us ours,” Sideburns’ mouth cracked in a wicked smile. “There’s nothing to tell if you never make it home to tell them.” 

Rapunzel had made some idiotic decisions in her life, many of them bordering on dangerous, but this one rapidly climbed the ladder to the top. “Uh...maybe we can talk this out?”

He nodded over to his brother, “Get her.”

She didn’t know those two could move so fast. 

They lunged at her swiftly, grabbing her upper arm. 

“No! Let me go!” she struggled, pulling at the vice grip of Sideburns’ sausage fingers.

Pascal rushed down her arm and up her attacker’s. No one messes with his human and gets away with it. 

The little lizard swarmed over the Stabbington, crawling across his face. 

He let go to swipe at Pascal, staggering around. “Get it off me!”

Patchy hauled off with a punch that landed against his brother’s nose a second after Pascal vacated his face. 

Sideburns fell.

Pascal leaped toward Rapunzel, but Patchy caught him in mid air. He squeaked in surprise.

He hauled off and angrily threw the small lizard as far as he could into the nearest tree line. 

“Pascal!” Rapunzel cried out. She lost sight of him. Her friend could be seriously hurt from that. “No!” 

Patchy grabbed her before she could run off to find the lizard.

“R’ah!” Now furious, scared, and worried about Pascal, she rammed her bare foot down on the instep of his foot.

His grip loosened enough for her to jab her sharp elbow into his gut. It didn’t take him down, but it did weaken his grip enough for her to pull away and take off running. 

“You’ll pay for that. After her!” Sideburns ordered. 

The two chased the fleeing girl through the meadow and into the forest.

_Meanwhile, deep within the forest…_

The royal barge carrying a smiling and excited Queen Tara drifted smoothly over the last of the falls tumbling into Illum Grove - the choosing grounds. 

A crowd had followed to watch from the edges of a small pond dotted with lily pads. Flowers sprang up around the pool amid trees old and young. Crepuscular rays of sunlight flickered across the water through a canopy of bright green leaves that sheltered the tranquil, peaceful setting.

Quirin and the leafmen guided the barge to settle gently on the pond's surface, and the water stilled to welcome the Life of the Forest. The barge unfolded like a fan into a large lily pad. 

The leafmen took up guard in the trees and along the rocks surrounding the pond to keep a vigilant eye out for any threats. 

Queen Tara moved down the ramp to the edge of the thick leaf, extended her right foot over open water, and stepped delicately onto a cluster of small petals that floated in at her unspoken word. The sundrop walked along a path that formed with each step to where the pods were kept. Her gown and her aura left a golden trail in her wake

Flowers bloomed as she passed, their heads following her like sunflowers follow the sun. The path of petals dispersed when Tara stepped onto another large lily pad. Multiple green pods frosted with a soft pink hue at their tips floated in the still water, tethered to a root system that connected them all. 

The crowd fell silent to only the songs of birds and the lapping of water against the shore as she walked along the outer edge of the lily pad with her palm hovering over the pods. She extended her other arm, feeling the power within her guide her in the right direction. 

She paused, turning her gaze toward the sky. The sun was nearing its zenith. And yet instead of directing her to the pods spotted among the lily pads, the sundrop looked briefly to the west. Whatever the reason, she took note of it, and continued her search.

Watching from the shore, a young, eager, red anemone jinn could barely contain her excitement. “She’s amazing!” Red looked up at the daisy that raised her, “I want to be queen when I grow up.”

“It doesn’t work that way, sweetie,” the daisy said, and watched the queen walk by a group of pods near them, “Queen Tara gives her power to a special pod when the sun is at its highest point. Then, she cares for it until it blooms in the first rays of the morning sunlight ,” she cast a wistful smile as their monarch moved in, “It’s all very mysterious.”

Red half heard her mother while daydreaming about what it would be like to be queen. If she ever had the chance, she would need to tell Kiera, her blue coronaria best friend. They would have so much fun.

Above them, the leafmen kept watch. 

Although Tara’s focus narrowed in on choosing a pod among the dozens present, Quirin's senses were on high alert. 

Every rustle of leaves in the wind, every snap of twigs, every bird call, and every motion of the people below watching the mysterious ceremony with awe reached him. 

The crackle of a leaf a branch below snared his attention. As he watched, one of its points crumbled away, spreading its infection outward. 

They were here.

“Boggans.”

In the blink of an eye, Quirin turned in his bird’s saddle, nocked an arrow back on his bow, and let it fly. 

It embedded into the trunk of a tree.

The leafmen nearby instantly drew their bows tight with arrows at the ready to fire in a heartbeat. Bex and her group held steady. Nothing would get past them to the sundrop.

Quirin held another elm arrow nocked, his eyes narrowed on the tiny gap in the bark where his first arrow protruded. 

An agonizing moment of silent suspense thickened the air. 

No one breathed. 

The rectangle of bark split from its surface, and the boggan hiding behind it with Quirin’s arrow through its side, fell to the forest floor.

He knew better than to let his bowstring slack.

Decades of protecting the forest had taught him that there’s no such thing as just one boggan.


	7. Ambush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boggans ambush the choosing ceremony, and the queen is forced to flee. At the same time, Rapunzel has to avoid being caught by the angry Stabbington twins.

Sometimes he hated being right. 

The tree bark exploded revealing hundreds of battle-hungry boggans in a ripple effect that cascaded down the trunk and over the thickest branch. Rot covered the raw, exposed surface, slowly burrowing into the heart of the tree.

Quirin’s fears were realized. 

This was an ambush.

“Your Majesty!” he called down to the pond below, “get to the barge!”

Queen Tara raced across the water. The green petals pulled together swiftly to form a straight path. The barge reformed from a lily pad back into a transport, and the dragonflies hovered it slightly over the water, waiting and ready to take off. 

Line after line of leafman archers fired into the dark forces, leaping over the heads of their brethren in a swift, constant rain of arrows.

Quirin and a group of hummingbird-mounted leafmen formed a protective circle around her as she ran. They fired arrows into the hordes, yet only a portion of the enemy were going straight for the queen. More made it their task to take out the dragonflies, causing the barge to crash into the water.

The rest - the majority -, they realized to their horror, went for the pods. 

Whenever Tara reached for a pod to save it, a boggan beneath the surface pulled it out of her grasp. She used her power to draw more of them to her. If she could grab one pod and escape, that’s all she would need. 

Yet the boggans kept that from happening. Their leader knew she would try this, so they made their strategy to eliminate all of her options. 

All at once, they pulled the pods under water in rapid fire succession, cutting off their tethers, and thus their life. Their knives, empowered with the magic of decay, killed every one of them. Each pod they pulled under eliminated one more option for her to transfer her power to until there were none.

And Tara stood on a lily pad surrounded by empty water where dozens of pods once floated.

With all the pods gone, the boggans advanced on her hummingbird protectors and her in a wave of sickly-grey, sharp-toothed terror. 

Her leafmen fought valiantly. 

Quirin swept in to provide cover when one of the enemy dropped with a screeching battle cry, knocking him from his bird into the water. 

“Quirin!” Tara cried out. She turned in a circle as more of them advanced. Some began to climb up onto her lilypad. Now angry, Tara leaped high into the air. The power illuminated her gown and aura, causing it to flare as she spun around once, and landed hard in the center of the giant leaf. 

A golden shock wave burst out of her, hurling the boggans far away. 

Quirin won the fight under water and climbed up onto the pad. He had watched the light sweep out over the pond above his head. He elbowed the persistent boggan he had fought in the face, and it splooshed with a low ‘ploonk’ into the water. 

“Go, You’re Majesty!”

“What about you?” she caressed his face where a cut bled over his eye, healing it. 

The wound closed as he spoke. He wasn’t even aware of it. “We’ll keep them away from you. You need to get back to Sunhaven.”

“I’ll lead them away from the crowd,” Tara nodded to him. She felt grateful that he was alright. He could hold his own, and so she trusted him. Her duty now lie in keeping her people safe from the boggans. Then she could worry about herself. 

A vine responded to her call for a quick escape. It wrapped around her arm and pulled her high up away from the pond into a tree, where she broke into a run.

The branches bent to her will to aid their sundrop in her escape. 

As she predicted, the boggan forces tramped the life around them to get to her. 

The broad fans of leaves obscured her from their view. 

They were persistent, rotting holes through the center with their knives and arrows, and dropping down to the ground to follow. 

An arrow lodged into the dirt just ahead of her. As she ran past, she brushed her hand by it, causing a sprout to grow around the infected arrow and nullify the rot. 

Even as she fled for her life, her priority remained to heal the forest from their touch.

* * *

The weather itself responded to the dire situation of the threat to the life of the forest. 

A brisk wind kicked up through the trees, rustling the branches in their chaos as clouds darkened overhead, summoned by an invisible force. 

Rapunzel hurried along the path, trying to escape the Stabbington twins close behind. 

Staying on this path was too obvious. She needed to slow them down, and hide. 

She ducked under a branch and dodged up a hillside, though paused. That gave her an idea. Rapunzel grabbed the branch and forced it back, waiting for the two to come thundering over the rise into view. 

“Hey! Mushroom brains!” 

They both turned toward her voice, growling, but had enough time to see her at the side of the road before she let the branch twang back into place. 

It struck both beefy twins in the face, dropping them to the ground. 

“Yes!” Rapunzel cheered. 

Sideburns shifted a glare to her as he got to his feet, staggering from the hit, but now angry enough to snap her in half and not care about the consequences. 

Her victory vanished. “Uh oh.” Rapunzel took off into the thick woods off the path. 

The two brutes barreled after her. 

She crouched and flattened herself against a tree, holding her breath as they ran by, breaking sticks and twigs in their careless assault to find her. 

“This way!” Patchy led his brother forward into the darkening forest. 

Rapunzel waited a heartbeat, then two, then swiftly ran back in the direction of the clearing. … At least she hoped it was the clearing. 

The wind howled angrily through the trees around her from the sudden storm. Some of them seemed to bend of their own accord. Thunder crashed directly above her head along with forks of lightning flickering the dark clouds into a pale periwinkle day. She folded her arms around herself with worry not only for herself, but for Pascal. She needed to find him. 

“Pascal?” she called, hoping the Stabbingtons’ were too far away to hear, and that the thunder and wind would mask her voice. “Pascal, where are you?” She moved through the forest, becoming increasingly lost. She didn’t know which way led back to the meadow. She had rescued that little chameleon when she was a child. If she lost him… “Come on, Pascal, please!”

* * *

While the boggans chased Queen Tara through the woods in the opposite direction of Sunhaven, Gothel and Mandrake swooped in overhead astride crows. 

“We’re losing?” Mandrake cursed, “How?! This plan was flawless!”

“We haven’t lost yet, Mandrake. You did well in removing the pods.”

Praise from her made his pulse race. “And what of the queen?”

“Queen Tara has nothing to transfer her power to. Now is our chance,” Gothel’s calm voice held bite, “Cut off the path ahead. We’ll surround her in a circle of rot,” she held the staff to emphasize the next part of her plan, “Then leave her to me.”

“As you command,” Mandrake took the army around either side, splitting them.

Leafmen rode their shields along the breeze, hanging from them, or surfing them to drop directly into the paths of the boggans. To the untrained eye, they would look like falling leaves in the winds.

Weapons raised, they charged with their battle cries strengthening their bravery leading the way into hand to hand combat with the boggans. Not all of them would make it home to Sunhaven, but to all of them, the life of the forest - the sundrop herself - was worth the sacrifice. Without the sundrop, the forest would succumb to Gothel’s power. Their lives were worth paying to preserve the life of the entire forest of Corona and those who dwelt within it, and those who depended on its bounty to live.

Queen Tara glanced in fright from side to side. They were attempting to surround her. However, she held the life of the entire forest of Corona. No one knew its knots and brambles better than her. 

Shifting directions, she hurried up flowers, sticks, leaves, and branches that offered themselves to her, climbed high into the trees, and leaped into the air. Her aureate dress lit up like a lantern. 

Quirin swept in on his faithful hummingbird, Maximus, and caught her in mid air. 

Thick, dark clouds gathered overhead, as though the weather itself were attempting to hide the sundrop from Gothel.

She, on the other hand, thrived in darkness. This may hamper a few of her number, but her vision sharpened. 

She caught sight of Queen Tara as a green hummingbird flew in with the hero of the day on its back to save her. Her eyes narrowed at the recognizable white vest of the Leafman commander; Quirin. Somehow he was always the one to foil her plans. His presence left the taste of bile in her mouth. 

She angled her crow around to give chase with her staff gripped firmly in hand when Mandrake rushed past her. “Mandrake!” she barked at his audacity.

“For you, My Queen!” Mandrake knocked back an arrow as his bird flew up above the canopy to follow. He would strike the leafman commander down in the name of his queen and rid them of their problem. Quirin had been a thorn in their sides for far too long. 

His bird broke through the canopy, and he fired.

Queen Tara held onto Quirin, getting lost in his acorn-brown eyes. “Ok,” she conceded, “So maybe you were right. I should have listened to you.”

He smirked. Even if she had, she would have gone through with the ceremony anyway. For now, he would enjoy this moment, and tease her a little, “Remind me to gloat later.”

“My hero,” she smiled. He always had a way of being charming even when he was trying to be facetious. Up here in the sky, alone, offered them a rare moment that she grasped. She leaned up slightly 

The arrow sliced the air between them, cutting dangerously close to both. 

Quirin used his armored arm to deflect another arrow. He caught sight of Mandrake closing in behind them. 

Mandrake let an arrow fly.

The leafman’s eyes narrowed. This ends now. 

Quirin grabbed the arrow out of the air, pulled it back on his own bow string, and fired. 

Mandrake managed to release one more arrow a split second before his rot-infused projectile struck him in the chest. 

The boggan general cried out as the rot began to eat him from the inside out, and fell. 

His bird, free’d, flew away. 

“No!” Gothel screamed, watching him fall, “Mandrake!” 

He had been the only one who dared to love her, to fight her, and to question her. He was a rarity among the boggans - intelligent and handsome. She was ready to rule the forest of rot with him at her side as her second in command. 

Of all the things Quirin, the queen, and the leafman took from her, she never thought it would be him - killed by his own arrow.

Her blood boiled. She shot an angry glare back where the murderous Quirin had been only to find the skies empty. 

Her eyes darted across all angles, searching desperately for the sundrop. “No… no…” Her target had vanished. 

“No!” She clenched her fists and let a scream of rage and defeat echo above the trees. 

She dove down to find Mandrake’s body. This was only a minor setback. The sundrop would never escape her. And the Queen was destined to continue without an heir. She would have her revenge. 

When Mandrake fell, and Gothel halted her pursuit, that’s when Quirin felt he could relax his bow. No other boggans were chasing them. The brave leafmen were pushing back the hordes. Now he could get the queen safely to Sunhaven. 

A small sound of pain from her shattered that relief. 

Her arms loosened their hold around him. 

Queen Tara slid from Maximus’ back and fell far above the darkening forest with a thick boggan arrow protruding from her side. 

Quirin’s heart dropped. Despite his skill, he had failed to stop the one boggan arrow that mattered. He wasn’t fast enough to grab her before she fell. Her light had begun to dim. “Tara!” 

She reached up for him as she fell, a tear welling at the corner of her eye as she heard him cry out her name. She kept him in sight as long as she could. A crack of thunder swallowed up his cry.

“TARA!”


End file.
